Within the last couple of months, Target and American Express have combined to come out with a new Prepaid card called REDcard, not to be confused with the regular Target REDcard, which is their regular store credit/debit card.
The features of the Prepaid REDcard are so similar to Bluebird and Serve that it is simply referred to as RedBird in the Blogosphere. So similar, in fact, that you can only have one of the 3 accounts. If you have Bluebird or Serve, you will have to cancel your account before you can get a REDcard.
The features of the Prepaid REDcard are so similar to Bluebird and Serve that it is simply referred to as RedBird in the Blogosphere. So similar, in fact, that you can only have one of the 3 accounts. If you have Bluebird or Serve, you will have to cancel your account before you can get a REDcard.
Why You Should Care
REDcard is a major upgrade from Serve/Bluebird for Manufactured Spending if you live near a Target. You can add up to $5,000 monthly to your REDcard at any Target register with any credit card and zero fees. You can then pay your credit card bill directly from the money in REDcard account or withdraw the money to your Bank Accouint.
A regular Target REDcard gives you a 5% discount at Target and REDcard is no different, you will get the same 5%.
Limits
- $5,000 of monthly fee free credit card
- $2,500 daily limit
- $500 limit for temporary version
You need to make two trips a month to Target to get the full $5,000.
How to Get the Card
To get a REDcard, you need to buy a temporary version in store and register it online to receive a permanent card. The temporary version looks like this:
Once you have the permanent version, you can load it with a credit card at any Target Location.
You can have someone else buy a RedBird card for you. If you are buying for someone else, put in your information when buying the temporary card and then the personal information can be changed when registering for the permanent card. You can only buy one temporary card per social security number per day.
Category Bonuses
You load at regular Target checkout lines so it is possible that if your Target has a pharmacy or is considered a grocery store that you might be able to get category bonuses on your credit card. I haven't seen anyone confirm this. Even if that doesn't work, you can still load with Fidelity American Express (2% everywhere) and get $100 per REDcard every month! That's sweet!
You can still load $1,000 a month with a Debit Card online, like a Paypal Business Debit card, for even more money. Paypal Business Debit gets 1% for loading to Serve, I assume the same will be true with Redbird
REDcard vs. Serve
There are a few differences between Serve and Redbird. Serve can be loaded online with a credit card for free, but only up to $1,500 a month with Softcard. Redbird's $5,000 monthly limit is much higher.
There are only two reasons to prefer Serve:
1) If you have no Target that's convenient, Redbird is not for you.
2) If you really care about Amex promotions like Small Business Saturday. I assume this will be added to Redbird eventually, but it is currently only available on Serve and Bluebird. I haven't switched until now because my Serve accounts were worth $300 between myself and my wife and our subaccounts.
Other than that, Redbird kicks Serve in the pants! Enjoy it while it lasts. Once it shuts down, I'm sure we'll find something else in our perpetual game of Manufactured Spending Whack a Mole.
I hope to be switching soon once someone from a different state sends it too me.
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